Fourth People’s Summit of The Americas

Summit can be force for change’
By Odette Loney Monday, March 2 2009

THE Caribbean now has a historic opportunity to voice its opinion on the current global economic downturn at the Fourth People’s Summit of The Americas, which is carded for April 16 to 18, in Port-of-Spain to run coincide with the Fifth Summit of the Americas.

This is the opinion of Haitian representative, Camille Chalmers for the Haitian Platform for the Advocacy of Alternative Development (PAPDA), Haiti, who spoke at the first public forum on the Fourth People’s Summit of The Americas at Oil Field Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Paramount Building, Circular Road, San Fernando Headquarters on Saturday.

The forum was organised by OWTU and the Federation of Independent Trade Union Networks (FITUN), in order to encourage Trinidad and Tobago citizens to attend the Fourth People’s Summit. Chalmers, who opted to speak in Spanish instead of his native tongue, was the only Haitian representative.

He told the small crowd that People’s Summit will address several Caribbean and Latin American issues, including women’s rights, the rights of native peoples, the labour union and global economic agenda’s.

And as this country makes history as the first Caribbean nation to host the People’s Summit, Chalmers told Caribbean nations to hold fast to their revolutionary history started by Haiti’s anti-slavery campaign in 1804 and the Cuban revolution.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “It is a pleasure to be in this country to work on the construction of alternatives to a world based on exploitation, exclusion and the piracy of resources.”

Chalmers blamed the Free Trade Agreement of The Americas (FTAA) as partly responsible for the current economic crisis and the destruction of Caribbean and Latin American markets.

He said: “The People’s Summit is going to be a very important show of strength that can be a force for change.
“The struggle against FTAA, against capitalist and imperialist dominations is changing the world.” Chalmers called on Caribbean countries to blow the winds of change even stronger than ever. And he considers the People’s Summit as a hallmark event, since it is the first People’s Summit to take place since the start of the world economic problems last year.

“ Some of the processes of the People’s Summit of The Americas made a large contribution towards this accumulation of strength against the FTAA,” said Chalmers.

The Fourth People’s Summit is seen by its organisers, the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA) and the Assembly of Caribbean People (ACP) as an alternative summit to the Fifth Summit of The Americas which is carded for April 17 to 19.
Other delegates at the forum included HSA members Sheila Katz from the Canadian Labour Congress, Mario Molina —Organisation of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAL), Cuba, Gonzalo Berron from Trade Union confederation of the Americas, Brazil and Cecilia Babb, Caribbean Policy Development Centre, Barbados and Sandra Massiah, Public Services International, Barbados.